


Wherever You Find Love (It Feels Like Christmas)

by swtalmnd



Category: Swan Song - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Band Fic, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, no seriously it's really very fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 19:01:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18058220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swtalmnd/pseuds/swtalmnd
Summary: An alternate version of Matt's first Christmas as a proper member of the Reed family.





	Wherever You Find Love (It Feels Like Christmas)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenThayet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenThayet/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Swan Song (Part 3)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15105194) by [earlgreytea68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgreytea68/pseuds/earlgreytea68). 



> I started this before egt posted her version of Matt's First Christmas, and then couldn't post it until she'd finished Swan Song part 3, so here you go - late and contradictory, but still fluffy as fuck.
> 
> Merry Very Late Christmas, Dr. QT!

Matt stared at the Christmas tree with something like awe, the original awe, terror and wonder at this thing that somehow seemed a lot bigger than pine and tinsel and ornaments. There were gifts under the tree, all levels of wrapping from pathetic to professional, and he knew there were gifts for him under there. Hell, he'd put gifts from him under there. He had a family, he was part of a family, he was the _other dad_ of this family.

"Breathe, darling," said Patrick, laying a hand on Matt's lower back and nearly making him jump out of his skin. "It's Christmas, not a firing squad."

Matt turned and snuggled into him, breathed him in, ignored his terrible Christmas pajamas and just let himself love and want and adore this man, this family. "Sorry, I'm just not. I've never done this before."

"I know," said Patrick, kissing his hair. "That's why there's a very judicious amount of Irish in this coffee I've brought you."

Matt laughed. "Jesus, did you buy whiskey just to spike my coffee?" This didn't stop him from taking the cup and a huge sip. There was even whipped cream on top.

"Carmen sent us a stocking full of tiny bottles for 'adult holiday cheer' and I elected not to put that particular gift under the tree." Patrick kissed him, tasting of coffee and cream and just a hint of alcohol.

"You are the best," said Matt, tucking his face in the crook of Patrick's neck again and breathing him in.

"If you two are done being gross," said Miranda, looking delighted instead of disgusted, "now that you have coffee it's definitely presents time."

"That is the deal in this household," agreed Patrick. "Caffeine then gifts."

Matt laughed. "Yeah, okay. So how does this go?"

Every single Reed capable of it gave Matt a look of fierce, unbridled protectiveness as it hit them collectively that Matt had, in fact, never done this before. Matt might once have withered under the force of it, but now he wrapped it around himself, for the sake of the younger him that they were all still angry they couldn't protect.

"Which child has drawn delivery duty?" asked Patrick teasingly. "Sometimes they fight over who gets to, sometimes it's who has to," he clarified to Matt.

"They've ceded it to me," said Hailey proudly. She was also in her brand-new Christmas pajamas, which she'd chosen herself and were therefore pink and red and sparkly with more bows than Matt had frankly expected. Miranda's were black with Santa-hatted skulls, and Kylie's were covered in a Jackson Pollock splatter of red, green, and white. Matt had a much more boring pair of red with white fake-sweater-patterned snowflakes, and Patrick's were blue with reindeer. Adam was dressed as a reindeer, and kept tugging the hood of his onesie down to chew on his antlers.

"Hailey will deliver us gifts, one at a time, and each of us opens while the others watch with rapt attention, thus drawing out the process to a ridiculous degree. When they're all open, there will be waffles and playing with our spoils." Patrick looked very pleased with himself over something, but Matt wasn't quite sure if it was gift-related or progeny-related or even Matt-related. It could have been all three, a syllepsis of smugness.

"So I get to sit here and drink coffee and occasionally open a gift?" asked Matt, making sure he was clear and also that they knew he wasn't upset by any of it. "I approve of this use of child labor."

Patrick laughed, and then kissed Matt's hair. Predictably, because whatever else they were, they were all Reeds and inclined to spoil him, Matt got the first present. It was from Patrick, and when he unwrapped it his heart stopped for a moment with the memory. "Oh," he said softly.

Patrick had kept his scribbled proposal and had it professionally framed, with just enough hints of a missing line at the top to make it clear that the line about fucking against windows more was still up there, hiding itself from young eyes. The framer had somehow managed to make it look like a charming artifact instead of a page of notebook paper, and Matt felt his eyes getting suspiciously wet. "I don't think I knew you'd kept this," he said.

"I couldn't possibly let it go," said Patrick, turning his face up into a soft kiss. "You literally asked to marry into my family."

"It's sappier than one of your songs," said Kylie, "and that's saying something."

"Hey, those songs are very popular," said Matt, feeling the thickness in his throat dissolving into laughter. "Those songs paid for your Christmas presents."

"You're getting yours last, I guess," Hailey told Kylie, grinning and giddy with power. "Dad next, anyway."

"They get the boring adult stuff out of the way early," explained Patrick, holding a hand out to accept the badly-wrapped bundle from, apparently, Bach. "I'm very impressed that you taught the dog to use tape."

Bach had given Patrick shoes to replace the ones she'd chewed on while teething. Adam got more blocks to further his Godzilla ambitions, Bach got a brand-new leash and collar, Hailey got her very own acoustic guitar, and Miranda got a package of gift certificates to her local salon of choice, enough to change her hair color once a month for a year if she wanted. Matt tensed up with it came to Kylie's gift, because Hailey innocently chose Matt's little box with its professional wrapping and sprigs of real rosemary.

"Ooh, I get the first Matt gift," said Kylie, lifting off the lid and looking inside. There was a Christmas card from a local contractor nestled attractively in very fancy packing, and she opened it up to read silently and then lit up brighter than the tree. "Oh my god, no way! Matt, you are the best!"

Matt was shocked to find himself with an armful of child-hug while the card was being waved in Patrick's face. "Matt got us a contractor!"

"Not for everything," said Matt quickly. "But for anything structural, electrical, or plumbing-related. Also the balcony upstairs, which I would like to stop being snowed on through."

Patrick laughed as the other two children piled on, which became four children and a puppy once Adam and Bach figured out cuddles were happening without them. "Yes, yes, all right, Matt may coordinate and pay for a contractor for the things we, as a household, agree require one."

"We will do this democratically, so that your dad can't just veto everything," said Matt conspiratorially. "We'll hold family votes." He drank the rest of his alcoholic coffee under the pretense of wanting to put the cup down and hug better. He had a feeling Patrick wasn't fooled.

* * *

Underneath his disgruntlement that his children were this excited to have someone other than himself renovate their house, Patrick was drowning in love for Matt, for this Matt who was his fiancé and his co-parent and who loved his kids as fiercely as Patrick did, in the way that Ashley never had and Patrick hadn't let himself see. "As long as any painting of our bedroom gets to be done as a family the way the kids' rooms were, I will allow a moderate level of professional involvement in our renovations."

"Does this mean your walls will someday be something other than dirty failed homework white?" asked Miranda.

"It means that it's time for another gift," said Hailey, climbing cheerfully off the pile to go find another for Matt.

It showed on Matt's face that he had not been expecting anything but Patrick's gift, but he gamely accepted the box and unwrapped his present from Kylie, which was a hand-decorated frame with a photo in it of Matt working on their song with the girls. Patrick had coordinated for Matt to get a whole set of family photos for them to make a photo wall once the tree was taken down, with the proposal figuring prominently, as well as some of Kylie's art and some older things that had been boxed up and never found a home.

The rest of the gifts went much more predictably, with Matt looking less shocked and more soft and sweet with every picture, and his kids getting pretty spoiled with regards to their lists and having two dads who were recently-rich-again rock stars. Patrick had tried not to go too overboard, choosing gifts that were appropriate to their interests and not just throwing every ridiculous thing at them, but he was pretty sure not a lot of Miranda's classmates had gotten that fancy of a camera this year, and Kylie's enrollment in a metal sculpture class that she wasn't technically old enough for was frankly ridiculous. Hailey's guitar seemed almost tame by comparison, but she'd loved it as much as her sisters loved their own gifts, so Patrick was happy to take it.

He got his own artfully-wrapped gift from Matt, amused that he had obviously paid someone to do all his gifts without realizing that they didn't require anything too fancy in this household. "So this is from Bach, right?" teased Patrick, lifting off the lid.

"No, Bach got you shoes," said Miranda. "She's really very sorry."

Patrick laughed. There were two different greeting cards inside much like Kylie's gift, but instead of a contractor this gift contained information for two different trips on the same week, which he happened to know was spring break for the girls. "What's all this unsupervised travel you have planned for our children?"

"Anna's coming out to fly with them," said Matt. "She wants to film us recording our bus song, and then they're going to spend spring break with the Jins."

"Whoa, no way, seriously?" said Miranda, excited.

"Even Adam?" asked Kylie, understandably dubious.

Matt chuckled. "Even Adam, though Bach will be staying with a house-sitter that Rachel found for us, who will incidentally be available to let contractors in and out at all hours."

"All right, and this other trip I see here?" asked Patrick, lifting up the card that featured a beautiful shot of New York at night.

"That's for you and me. It's a scheme, but it's a good scheme. I've found us a hotel suite with a piano for us to take a week to ourselves to work on our music." Matt gave him a wicked look and added, "It's got a lot of windows."

Patrick's eyes flicked to the frame containing Matt's proposal, and he knew he was blushing in a way that his children absolutely didn't want to think about. "Good light is absolutely necessary for songwriting," he said, giving Matt a kiss. "You're right. It's a good scheme."

The girls gave a cheer and initiated another pile-on, which made Matt laugh. "For the record," Matt said to Patrick, "David and Cora are very happy to host the Reed progeny. Apparently their kids miss our kids or something ridiculous like that."

"They weren't bad, for little kids," said Hailey, ever loyal. Kylie's face told a slightly different story, but on the other hand she'd adored Anna only somewhat less than Miranda had, and would, Patrick knew, give up her spring break for the sake of her sisters and her dad.

"If anyone wants to make different plans, we can discuss it," said Patrick.

Kylie rolled her eyes. "I'll get to see my LA friends, Dad, it'll be fine."

Patrick kissed her head, despite protests.

* * *

Matt let out a breath he'd been holding since approximately October, when he'd gotten the idea for his vacation scheme. He'd hinted around and gotten a few knowing looks from Kylie, but he'd seriously been worried that these elaborate gifts were too much -- or too much of a scheme -- for the Reed family holidays. But he'd also been a little desperate to whisk Patrick away and just spend some time with no Mrs. Honeycutt or Reed progeny or Rachel or anyone interrupting them while they drowned in each other and their music.

"This one says it's from Santa for the whole family," said Hailey, pulling a giant box out from where it had been hidden behind a tree. "And I think I found our presents from Matt, too."

"Yeah, I guess they got pushed back," said Matt with a shrug. "Let's start with those."

Hailey passed Miranda hers, and Matt tried to look nonchalant as she opened it to find yet another of stash of gift cards inside. "This is, oh, oh wow! It's Adobe Creative Cloud licenses for all of our computers, for, like, all the apps. So I can have Premiere! And you can have Photoshop, Kylie!"

"Oh, wow, that's gonna be so great," said Kylie, having lost all pretense of coolness, though she shot an assessing look his way. "Matt gives sideways gifts."

"Oh, I wonder what mine is, then," said Hailey, tugging the wrapping off her small box as well. "Whoa, is this the manual for... What is this?"

"It's a really nice keyboard, which you can share with your dad because it hooks up to that pricey recording studio software he uses." Matt couldn't help but feel smug. "So you two can play at the same time, and not get in each others' way."

"Okay, that's actually better than a second piano," said Patrick, tugging Matt in for a kiss. "Kylie's right, you give sideways gifts."

"I am very happy to share a gift with Dad," said Hailey, looking very impressed and coming over for a big hug. "Okay, the Santa one is the last box. Who wants to open it?"

"Not Bach," said Matt, as the puppy left off her new toy to sniff curiously at the paper.

"Not Bach," said Kylie, grabbing him. "You should do it." She gestured to Hailey. "You did all the work."

"Yeah, you do it," said Miranda, distracted somewhat by the manual for her new camera.

Hailey dove in, ripping paper and pulling off the lid, and then blinked, confused. "It's... headphones?"

"There's earmuffs on top?" said Kylie, leaning in. "Oh. They're ear protection for babies, for Adam?"

"It seems like there's also a number of pairs of noise-cancelling headphones in there," said Matt, totally failing to seem innocent. "Let's see, blue is your father's favorite color, so those must be his. Miranda, you'll want black to go with the hair of the month. Black goes with everything."

"Cool," said Miranda, accepting the pair that Hailey handed her. "Oh, these work with my laptop."

"And the keyboard," said Matt, nodding to Hailey. "I thought you might want purple, Kylie?"

"These'll be great when I'm doing metal work," said Kylie brightly.

"The pink ones are for Hailey, obviously," said Matt. "And Santa said they were out of silver, so I get rose gold because toxic masculinity is for losers."

"You always were flashy," said Patrick, giving Matt a kiss. "These will be perfect for the days the contractors are working, however did Santa know?"

"Magic," said Matt innocently.

"The rose gold is very you," agreed Kylie with a little smirk. "These are great for construction, too. Santa's very clever. And sideways."

"Well, that's done," said Matt. "What's the next tradition in the Reed household?"

The girls all yelled at once with great glee, "Waffles!"

Patrick laughed and let himself be dragged into the kitchen, Matt following along behind the crowd with Adam held comfortably on his hip.

* * *

A few hours later Patrick found himself with a lapful of Matt and not a single person in the room paying attention; even Adam was napping. "You know what else noise-cancelling headphones are good for?" asked Matt, gesturing to the redhead tween army, absorbed in their new goodies, headphones firmly in place.

"Any second now Kylie's going to look up and make that face at us," said Patrick, but he kissed Matt anyway. He could never quite find it in himself to not kiss Matt when the opportunity presented itself, these days. He couldn't regret it, either, with the way it made Matt smile or melt or sparkle, the way it made him pause, every time, to feel appreciated.

"Not if you let me lure you back to the bedroom for some holiday spirit," teased Matt. "I mean, my other idea was to put mistletoe down your pants, so."

Patrick laughed, and not one head turned their way. "Yeah, okay. This plan is better."

"It's a gift for the whole family," said Matt, taking Patrick's hand and leading him down the hall.

Patrick chuckled, and he gave in to his instincts and shoved Matt up against the bedroom door the moment it was closed. "We're still not doing it under, on, or near the piano when anyone's home," he said, before devouring Matt's mouth in the best kind of kiss.

Matt's whole body relaxed into Patrick's embrace. "Not today," he agreed. He always had been unable to resist a challenge.

"Shut up and let me blow you," said Patrick, kissing his way down Matt's neck, hands finding their way under his clothes layer by layer. Christmas pajamas had an advantage there, even if Matt did turn out to be wearing silk boxers under them.

Matt laughed and braced himself, stroking over Patrick's hair, neck, shoulders. Patrick kissed his palm, then nuzzled into his clothing, getting everything out of the way enough to be comfortable but not so much he couldn't surround himself with the warmth and scent of Matt's body while he went to work. Matt's cock was achingly familiar and achingly hard, the shape and weight of it on Patrick's tongue like its own kind of Christmas miracle this year. Matt was not only here, not only his, but going to stay that way for every Christmas and birthday and fucking International Pancake Day they could manage.

"Merry fucking Christmas, shit," gasped Matt, echoing Patrick's thoughts. Which was still too much coherent thought as far as Patrick was concerned, so he concentrated on making Matt's words all turn to moans, soft ones even with the headphones in play, moans just for Patrick's ears and Patrick's touches.

When Matt came, it was exactly what Patrick wanted for Christmas every single year from then on.

When Patrick came in Matt's hand, gasping into Matt's kisses, it was all his wishes come true.


End file.
